HERA Ultrasonic Humidifer

To combat the dry air commonly found in winter, I have used humidifiers for as long as I can remember. I have used various types and I tend to prefer the ultrasonic humidifiers due to their low noise and the lack of required filters and other parts that other types of humidifiers commonly use.

Let us start with the basics. The HERA ultrasonic humidifier is basically another ultrasonic humidifier. The basic functionality of the product is not much different than any other ultrasonic humidifier that I have ever seen. The unit creates a spout of water mist, which in theory will evaporate before hitting the ground and humidify the air. The product does this and does this well.

However, the HERA Ultrasonic Humidifier has a pretty hefty price tag compared to many other models. What sets the HERA brand apart from the rest?

The HERA Ultrasonic Humidifier has touchpad controls that allow the user to customize the humidifier settings to their own preferences. The humidifier has a warm mist feature that helps take the cold, wet feeling out of the room. There is the option of three different output levels. The humidifier can be set up to shut off when it reaches a predetermined humidity level and there is a digital hygrometer to show you the humidity level of the room. The night mode will dim the LCD display if the light bothers you at night. The unit is equipped with a filter cartridge meant to reduce the hardness level of your water and an ionic silver cube meant to help keep the water bacteria free.

I personally found most of the functions on the humidifier pretty intuitive. I did have to refer to the manual a few times to figure out exactly what certain buttons did. I felt that the manual was very poorly designed. I thought the content of the manual was fine, but the layout of the manual was not very user friendly in my opinion. While I did not have problems figuring out how to fill the tank, my wife did have to take some time to figure out where the water went.

There were some things I really liked about the unit. I thought the output level of the unit was powerful. On the highest setting with the unit 2 feet off the ground, the water did not evaporate before it hit the ground. I thought the unit was very aesthetically pleasing. It is an attractive box form that can fit in a number of areas easily. I thought the warm mist was a nice option that I felt made a difference in the feel of the air in the room. One of the things I liked best was that the tank is square, which makes for easy filling. I have had other shaped tanks that were a pain to try and hold while filling with several gallons of water.

The hygrometer seemed to be fairly accurate for the most part. I put another hygrometer in the same room and the readings were pretty close. The only exception to this is when I filled the tank. The hygrometer on the humidifier would read too high for a few minutes after filling the tank. If the auto mode is being utilized, it will usually shut off until the reading corrects itself.

What I did not like about the unit is the concept of the filter cartridge. I live in an area with pretty hard water. There is a water softener in my house, but I know many people do not have one. I have used ultrasonic humidifiers for years before I put my water softener in and I will admit after about 3 or 4 winters, I will usually have to clean the humidifier out with vinegar and a soft brush. While the idea of the filter cartridge did intrigue me, it is a disposable part and one that might need to be changed frequently.

The humidifier comes with a test strip. The test strip appears to be German and measures in units of Degrees of Hardness (dH) and the instructions measures water hardness in "pink boxes." I took a sample of untreated water in my house and using test strips, I measured it to be about 250 ppm (parts per million) or about 15 gpg (grains per gallon). Using the provided test strip, it measured about 17 dH or about 3.5 pink boxes. In my later research, I found that the gpg and dH measurements are not identical, but for this purpose, they are close enough to use interchangeably.

So why am I spending so much time talking about water hardness? The filter cartridge life is dependant on water hardness. With 15gpg/17dH water hardness level at my house without the water softener, I can expect the filter cartridge to last for 20 to 40 gallons of water or 10 to 20 fills of the tank. At the time of this writing, a Stadler Form A-112 replacement cartridge runs $15 to $20. The Stadler Form Replacement Ionic Silver Cube is supposed to be replaced annually and currently that runs another $25.

My treated water is about 1 gpg. According to the manual, at this hardness level, the filter should last about 115 gallons of water or about 58 fills.

While I liked the humidifier, the price of replacement cartridges and silver cubes can be quite expensive. Both of these items are optional to use, but if you take those aspects away, then this is just another ultrasonic humidifier and then there are many more cost effective alternatives available. Those alternatives might not be as stylish and the controls might not be as user friendly, but when it comes down to it, without the filter cartridge, my $50 Sunbeam has most of the same functions as this one.

Overall, I thought it was an excellent product worthy of 5 stars. However, keep in mind that there is potentially quite an expense to utilize the product to its full potential. For that, I am deducting 2 stars.